Blades of Chaos
by MidnightRebel
Summary: Mutants are vanishing. It's up to the children of X-men to find out where they're going. OC's and Canon characters. Much better than it sounds. Reveiw me and I'll reveiw you. UPDATED TEN!
1. Prolouge

Disclaimer: I don't own all the characters, just the ones that my own twisted psyche made up. I also own the plot.   
  
A/N: This is like the comics and the mixed together with a dash of Evolution and has a whole lot AU-y goodness and impossibility and unlikelihood!!   
  
This is the story of some the X-men's children. OC's and canon characters. Oh yeah and I, like, can't spell any of those wacky words that are special only to the X-verse so, like, if you can tell how I'll be grateful as heck.  
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *   
  
Meep, Meep, Meep went her alarm clock. Meep, Meep, Meep. Vanessa mentally cursed who ever had invented alarm clocks and rolled over to switch it off.   
  
"Mondays," she muttered passionately, "I hate Mondays."   
  
She brushed her hair out of eyes and staggered to the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, Vanessa stood trying to brush her wet mass of curls.   
  
Vanessa was an ordinary looking girl–red hair, brown eyes, athletic body. But that just proves that looks can be deceiving.   
  
"Vanessa, hurry up!" her foster mother called from downstairs.   
  
She grunted and pulled on a pair of jeans. Vanessa slid down the stair banister and landed lightly next to her chair in the kitchen.   
  
"Hurry up and eat or you'll miss the bus, and I don't have time to take you to school today."   
  
Vanessa rolled her eyes, but dug into her waffle. "This is good, Renee!" She exclaimed around a mouth full of food. If her foster-mother said anything to that Vanessa didn't hear her because she happened to glance down at her watch. "Oh my gosh!" She squealed, grabbed her backpack and her coat, and flew out the door.   
  
Her bus was still at the corner by the time she made it there. Panting from running, she flopped into a seat next to her best friend, Nicole.   
  
"Sleeping late again?"   
  
Vanessa pretended to look shocked, "Me? Never."   
  
Nicole smiled and the sunlight glinted off of her braces. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until eighth period gym. In her gym shorts, she noticed her tattoo.   
  
Her tattoo was on the side of her right leg down by her ankle and it was a picture of a yellow rosebud with a long stem that looked a lot like a very stretched out S.   
  
It looked . . .different. Vanessa squinted at it. Almost like the rose was about to bloom.   
  
Vanessa closed her eyes and shook her head. "That's impossible," she muttered and continued pulling her sock on. But it was happening as much as Vanessa didn't want to admit it. She was a mutant.   
  
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * At the Xavier Institute ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ * ~ * ~*   
  
Professor X called in Tianna Wager and Jonathan Howlett. "Cerebro, has detected a new mutant."   
  
Jon grinned. "Prep the X-jet?" He asked hopefully.   
  
"Yes, and gather up Wolverine, Storm, Zero, Jazz, and the rest of the team."   
  
Jon started for the door. Tianna caught the back of Jon's shirt. "I'll prep the jet; you get Logan. He's your father after all."   
  
"I want to prep the X-jet!"   
  
Tianna stared up at Jon and stuck out her bottom lip, and gave him her best puppy dog pout. "No!" Jon yelled and again his voice rising. "No! NO! Fine!"   
  
"Yay!"   
  
Professor X shook his head as two of his students both ran out of the room to do their tasks. "Those two may lack experience, but they make up for in enthusiasm and courage," He remarked quietly.   
  
Jon raced into the cockpit. "It's already to go!" Tianna sang out. "Jon, you fly." Tianna repositioned herself in the copilot's seat. Tianna hated flying and she refused to be the first pilot, or a passenger. Jon wondered what she would do if she ever had top fly commercial.   
  
"Kind of funny, you'll fly a jet, but you won't drive a car," Jon teased her.   
  
Tianna tossed her obsidian curls over her shoulder, ignoring Jon. He grinned cockily and waited. A few minutes later, Zero melted into a seat behind Jon.   
  
Samantha Angelina Dovine was the picture of innocence. Her long, curly blonde hair fell to her shoulders like a halo, and ice-blue eyes emphasized by long eyelashes fluttered in pure, childlike innocence.   
  
Nicknamed Zero because of her ability to go invisible and leave no trace of the fact that she'd been there.   
  
"Where we goin'?" She asked curiously.   
  
"Jamestown, New York," Professor X answered as he rolled onto the jet.   
  
"I'm going to be stuck with you two for a long time," Tianna sighed. "In a plane. Oh, God, let me out!" In her agitation, she switched forms.   
  
Tianna had the slight ability to shape shift, but only between two forms. She could be a normal looking human being, or she could look like a female version of her father, Nightcrawler. Tianna was really elemental. She could control wind, water, fire, and earth. Her powers had never really manifested themselves; Tianna had always had them, but that didn't mean she was always in control.   
  
Jon took after his father in his powers, but that was it. Unlike his father's husky build. Jon was slender, but his body was crawling with muscles. His chestnut hair was cropped short and had been gelled into spikes and a bit of scruff around his chin. All in all he was very good looking.   
  
Jon flirted a bit with Samantha while the teenagers waited. Tianna stared out the window, flicking her tail impatiently.   
  
"Professor, do you thinks it's safe? What with all the disappearances and stuff?" She asked.   
  
Professor X turned to his student, "It's a chance we'll have to take." Tianna nodded, but she didn't look reassured. For several years, mutants had been vanishing. Nightcrawler had been one of the first to disappear.  
  
"All right, Jonathan, since we're assembled. You can take off now."   
  
Jon obliged the professor by taking off.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*Jamestown~*~*~*~*~*~   
  
Vanessa ran home from the bus stop. There was no way that what had just happened, happened. That rose bush had been dead. How could it have just sprung to life and chased Saratoga and his goonies away and then returned to be dead and lifeless? And then there were her fingernails. They were turning green just like she painted them! All she wanted to do was go up to her room, climb into the bed, take a nap, and wake up and have it all be a dream!   
  
Vanessa pounded up the steps and into the her kitchen and stopped abruptly. Three people stood in her kitchen talking to Renee.   
  
"Yes, Professor, she started displaying powers for a little while now. I knew I should have called, but I never got around to it."   
  
"It's okay, Renee, just as long as she's safe."   
  
"Renee?" Vanessa asked quietly.   
  
"Vanessa, hon, this is Professor X." Renee motioned to a man sitting in a wheel chair.   
  
Vanessa took a step back. "What's going on?"   
  
Professor X steepled his fingers and opened his mouth. The boy on his right interrupted. "Has anything weird been happening to you lately?"   
  
"Jonathan," the professor started.   
  
Jon rolled his eyes, "It's what you were going to say, only it would have been sugar coated."   
  
The girl elbowed him forcefully. "Shut up."   
  
The boy scowled at her and rubbed his ribs. "You have really bony elbows."  
  
"If you two are done, now?"   
  
"Sorry, Professor," The two teens chorused.   
  
Vanessa slipped into a seat and listened to Professor X as he spoke. "I own a school where young students like yourself learn to control and use their powers. Tianna and Jonathan are both students are there."   
  
'Yeah, that makes her really want to come," Tianna mumbled.   
  
Jon raised an eyebrow, "What does that mean?"   
  
Tianna gave an overly sweet smile. Logan called her a sugar coated for a reason. "Because you're there!"   
  
Jon glared at her and thought momentarily about stabbing her with one of his claws. In the end, he decided against it. Things would get too boring too quick.   
  
The Professor watched the two of them and shook his head. "You do not have to come, but–"   
  
The door opened and a rather frantic looking Zero rushed in. As she had a tendency to do when she got upset, she was slowly vanishing. "Professor!"   
  
Vanessa watched Zero. "Zero, get a hold of yourself!" Jon ordered.   
  
"Literally," Tianna added.   
  
Zero closed her eyes one of the few things still visible. After a few minutes the rest of her body began to appear. "Professor, Jolie is gone!"   
  
Professor furrowed his brow and answered the exclamation, but Vanessa was too deep in thought to hear it. "Professor X, I think I'll go to the Institute," she interrupted suddenly. "It's probably much safer there."   
  
Jon opened his mouth and Tianna elbowed him forcefully. "It is." She answered.   
  
"Very well then. Jonathan, Samantha, Tianna, please escort her to X-jet."   
  
The three nodded. Vanessa got to her feet and followed the three other mutants out of the door. 


	2. The SA

A/N: Most of the rest of the chapters are told from Tianna's point a view.   
  
The S.A.  
  
If you ask me, fate has a sick sense of humor. Real sick. When I'm five, my father vanishes. When I'm seven, my mother vanishes. Leaving me without any family. Sure the professor and Storm and everybody else is great, but a girl needs her mother to talk about girl stuff and her father to talk about stuff they have in common. Such as being blue and fuzzy.   
  
But at that moment fate decided to be extremely weird and do something horrible to me again. It decided that I needed a secret admirer.   
  
Now, there really wasn't anything wrong with a secret admirer, but if a guy can't come up to me and simply state, "Hey, would you like to go to the dance with me," then obviously he doesn't like me enough.   
  
This also bother me for a couple of reasons:   
  
A) he knew how to get into my locker. You can't shove a tiger lily in between those little slats at the top.   
  
B) He knew me pretty well. He knew one of my favorite flowers.   
  
C) He knew Vanessa. I know this because the tiger lily was blue. Tiger lilies aren't blue unless Vanessa is some how involved in all of this.   
  
I took the blue flower and waved it in front of Vanessa's face. "Did you know about this?"   
  
She jerked back. "No. It's a fake flower Tianna."   
  
I examined it. It was a very realistic looking fake flower. It was a mistake anyone could make! "Oh," I sat down next to her and handed her the note which she read.   
  
"Aw, how cute!" She cooed, making me want to smack her.   
  
I glared at her, "Please, don't tell Jon. I'll never hear the end of it!"   
  
"Don't tell Jon what?" Jon asked, sitting down across from me.   
  
Vanessa took pity on me and shook her head. "It's none your business."   
  
I heaved a silent sigh of relief. Jon gave me look that–Uh-huh and if I kiss a frog it'll turn into princess.  
  
Zero appeared at his elbow. She doesn't need to be invisible to blend in with the crowd. "What's going on?" She asked.   
  
Vanessa fingered one of her green strands of hair. They'd grown in after she started using her powers. She controlled plants. No one messed with her after a sudden outbreak of poison ivy rashes had sprung up.   
  
"Oh, I don't know because they never tell me anything." Jon complained. I exchanged glances with Vanessa. A smile spread across her lips.   
  
"Well, Jon, since you really want to know. Tianna was thanking me for letting her borrow a pa–"  
  
"Okay," Jon held up his hand. "That's enough."   
  
Zero cracked up and nearly fell of the bench. A few people stared at her, but all turned back to there lunches.   
  
"D," Vanessa finished.   
  
Jon finished his burger in two humongous bites. "Excuse me. I have to go wash out my ears."   
  
"Have fun!" Vanessa called and then the two of us broke down into giggles.   
  
Zero calmed down. "Sometimes, I feel sorry for him."   
  
"Why? He best friends with the three most beautiful girls at the Xavier Institute!" Vanessa struck a dramatic model pose and laughed harder.   
  
Later after school when most of the students were working on homework. Zero, Vanessa, and I were on the roof.   
  
"Here, he comes!" Zero hissed. "Hurry up, Ti!"   
  
I gritted my teeth as I directed the water to the balloons. "There!" I handed them the balloons.  
  
"What are you guys doing?" Jon asked.   
  
"Sh!" We all hushed him.   
  
"One," Zero counted.   
  
"Two," Vanessa continued.   
  
"Three!" I added. We all dropped our water balloons and watched them land on Logan's head. He stood there, dripping wet for a few minutes then looked up.   
  
We all grinned and waved. Then he took out his claws. "Every X-teen for themselves!" Zero hissed and evanesced.   
  
Jon stared at the place where she had been. "I hate it when she does that!" Kick! "Ow!"   
  
"Later," I said and flew off.   
  
Gracefully Vanessa launched herself off the roof and landed in a nearby tree. Jon sighed, "I don't do anything and who's going to get grounded? ME!"   
  
After a while later, I met Sammy and Vanessa. "That was great!"   
  
Sammy grinned, "I just hope we didn't get Jon in trouble."   
  
"Yeah, it's no fun without him." Vanessa added.   
  
Sammy turned to me, "What really was happening at lunch?"   
  
Vanessa grinned. "Can I tell her?"   
  
I waved my hands in response. Vanessa's eyes lit up. "Tianna has a secret admirer!"   
  
Sammy's mouth dropped. "Really?"   
  
I nodded. "Uh-huh. He gave me the world sappiest note and a fake flower."   
  
"A rose?"   
  
"Nuh-huh, a blue tiger lily."   
  
"Weird."   
  
Sammy was bouncing up and down. Vanessa was amazed. I had a look of pure boredom on my face. Both of them were trying to think of different scenarios of how to catch my S.A. which is what they were calling my secret admirer.   
  
"Hey, I know!" Sammy cried. "You said S.A. can get into your locker, right? Well what if you put a note in your locker and started like a pen pal thingy."   
  
"Yeah!" Vanessa exclaimed, "And then you can show the notes to us. He's got to give you some accidental clues to who he is!"   
  
"Uh-huh. I'll do that," I told them more to make them shut up than anything else.   
  
Vanessa and Sammy both clapped happily. "You guys are idiots," I muttered.   
  
"You're just now figuring that out now?" Vanessa asked.   
  
_____________________________________________________   
  
A/N: If you're very confused and wondering what this has to do with the current storyline, trust me; it has a purpose to the story. If anyone has any ideas for:   
  
1) Any weird mutant powers   
  
2) A new summary (I'm really bad at summaries)   
  
3) Any ideas. I am here to serve!  
  
4) Feedback. I love feed back!   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
  
Carebear1: Jon's dad is Wolverine. He's got the claws and the bad temper. Nightcrawler was always my favorite mutant and I always wished he was there more. I was absolutely ecstatic when he turned out to be a main character in Evolution!   
  
Summers2004: If I told you who was kidnaping the mutants there wouldn't be much of a story. 


	3. Nameless chappie

Zero-0: Hi! Thanks for the compliment. You get your wish. Your update's underneath all this mess.   
  
Summers2004: No, not even if you ask nicely. Am I planning any romances? Hm, that's a tough one. I've been toying with the idea. Let's put it this way: Do you want them?   
  
Ghostie: Thanks. In my world of writing, the prologue is almost always in the third person. Usually the only exception to this rule is when I have someone being a scribe and writing it down bio/memoirs style.  
  
I do this for a couple of reason:   
  
A) I need to do a mass character intro. This is not something, unfortunately, that you can do as well as through a characters eyes.   
  
B) Vanessa needs to be introduced or else the story wouldn't make sense at all. She is a very important character   
  
C) The best way to introduce a character is through that character's mind.   
  
Oh yes and I will probably be force to change to someone else point of view, but that's 'cause I have to and I'll you.   
  
KatLeBeau: Really *blushes* thanks. Well, both Tianna's and Jon's parents are both OC's I invented and who may show up in later chapters. Samantha's parents are non mutants. Her father though is a member of a secret military organization. He may show up, too. As for Vanessa that is classified information. But I will start dropping clues all of the story from now on. HINT: pay special attention to her tastes, her hobbies, and school stuff. And if you guess, please don't say anything.   
  
Red-X: Nightcrawler doesn't usually have kids, cuz he's a priest or at least that's my guess. No, he's not a priest in this one. And you managed to get my bad spot. *sighs* Oh, well I hope this part's a little more descriptive.   
  
The update isn't very long, but I have to put it up.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
My S.A gave me an email address and true to my word, I started a correspondence with my Unknown all of which I showed to Vanessa and Sammy. I wasn't falling in love with the guy.   
  
Somewhere in the middle of it all, Jon found out. He gave me hell for it, but I knew he was gonna do that.   
  
I pulled the piece of paper out of my printer and went to hunt up my friends. They were outside doing homework of all things. Jon was giving Sammy a Spanish tutoring session while Vanessa was studying for her French exam the next day.   
  
"What's up, mon ami?" Vanessa asked.   
  
"New letter," I replied uninterestedly and blew it towards her.   
  
Sammy pounced on it, "Cool!" She and Vanessa read it quickly. I rolled my eyes.   
  
"Hey, he wants to meet you! In person, face to face," Vanessa told me.   
  
"At the Bayville Park, Saturday 6 p.m.," Sammy went on.   
  
I took the piece of paper away from them. "It also says, and I quote, 'Come alone.' You put that on a ransom note or when you're getting mob money! Not on a love letter." He flashed me a grin.   
  
I rolled my eyes, "Oh well. I'm not going."   
  
Right on cue, both Vanessa and Sammy cried, "You have to!"   
  
"Nope, I don't. I don't wanna for that matter. I don't like this guy, all right? No reason to go. Besides all that, I don't feel right about it. By myself, to meet a guy I don't even know!"   
  
Sammy looked thoughtful, "I could go with you then you wouldn't be alone."   
  
The three of us stared at her. "Or I have a better idea! I'll give you some of my clothes, we'll dye your hair temporarily black, and you can go instead of me."   
  
Sammy did exactly what I knew she would do. She covered her hair with her hair with her hands and glared at us. "Or you could go, and we could send Jon with you."   
  
"Now why would Jon do that?" Jon asked sleepily, staring up at the blue sky.  
  
Vanessa poked him in the side. "Because we asked him to."   
  
"Mmm, no." He closed his eyes. "Try again."   
  
Zero thought for a moment. "Ae'd do your homework for a month."   
  
"I'm a senior; you three—juniors. Tianna's technically a sophomore."   
  
I grinned, "Cuz I'm a genius. And you're not including me in this 'we' are you?"   
  
Jon shook his head. "Bidding is closing."   
  
"We'll wash, wax, and clean your car," Vanessa put in hurriedly.   
  
Jon mulled that over, "Maybe, add to it."   
  
"Okay we'll do that and your chores except those that involve your room and Logan," Sammy tried. "He's still steamed over the water ballons."   
  
"Tempting. More."   
  
Vanessa thought out loud. "Okay, We'll wash n' wax the car, do your chores, and Tianna will make brownies just for you."   
  
I threw my hands in the air. "And I get dragged into this even though I don't wanna do it!"   
  
Jon looked interested. "Two."   
  
"It's a deal!"   
  
Jon grinned and got to his feet. "Okay, later."  
  
Once Jon was gone. I rounded on Vanessa. "I hate you." I declared, annoyed. Tianna Wagner, the best cook in the Institute. But Tianna Wagner has a deep hatred of doing just that. Everyone knows it, too.   
  
"Come on! I'm curious even if you're not. We'll come too and hide in the bushes or something. Can you live with that?"   
  
"No," I replied crossly. "Brownies! BROWNIES!"  
  
Zero grabbed my hand. "Ti, calm down, girl. You're hysterical." Too late, I was practically hyperventilating. I took a full breath, held it, and let it out. "I'm fine, but I'm sorry to say that later, you two won't be able to say the same." I stormed off.   
  
Vanessa looked at Sammy, "You know, sometimes she scares me."   
  
"Yeah, 'specially when she sparks." She rubbed the toe of her boot on a scorched part of the carpet. "Well, I have to say that was interesting." 


	4. Saturday

KatLebeau: Any time. If you want to see if you're right or not, my email is in my profile.   
  
Zero: Nice name. Glad you like it.   
  
Saturday   
  
Still wearing my pajamas, I wondered down the stairs and then outside. Jon was eating breakfast by himself. He stabbed a piece of sausage with one of his claw and ate it.   
  
Jon's table manners leave much to be desired.   
  
"Hi, Ti." He looked me up and down. "Nice pajamas."   
  
"Thanks. Don't insult the frogs." Not my best comeback, but it was way too early for bantering. I plopped down on the picnic bench. Coincidently, the same bench where Sammy and Vanessa had bribed him into coming with me.   
  
Brownies. I flicked my tail irritably at the thought and I still had to make brownies. Two batches of brownies.   
  
Jon was watching my tail with interest.   
  
Storm says when we were little he'd pull my tail and then I'd bite him. It was a game we still played. He's try to make a grab for my tail and I'd try to keep him from touching it.   
  
"Don't," I warned, gently slapping his hand with my tail.   
  
He rubbed his hand. "All right, all right. Boy, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."   
  
"Brownies," I muttered.   
  
He gave a slight laugh and returned to eating his breakfast.   
  
After a grueling hour of cooking, I went up to Jon's room and knocked on the door. He opened it. "Yeah?"   
  
"It's time, and here's your brownies." I gave him a plastic container with the brownies.   
  
"Hold on," he grabbed his coat and then emptied a couple of brownies into a bag. Then he went to his father's room and knocked on the door. "Hey, Dad, I'm going to the park. Just so you know, if I disappear."   
  
"That's nice, Jon. Have fun."   
  
I frowned, "Dis he even hear you?"   
  
"Yeah," Jon nodded, and bit off a piece of brownie. "That was his 'caring' mode."   
  
It never ceases to amaze me that Jon can talk with food in his mouth just as well as he can with it being empty. "You know, Ti, these are really, really good. You should do this more often."   
  
"No thanks."   
  
Vanessa and Sammy were outside. "We decided we just had to meet your S.A.!" Sammy told us brightly.   
  
"You're way too perky," Jon grumbled. He slammed his door. "Buckle up. I will not be held responsible for any injuries."   
  
Vanessa looked a little freaked out. "What?"   
  
"Sweet!"   
  
About ten minutes later, the four of us piled out of the car. "Okay," Vanessa swallowed. "How did you ever get your driver's license?"   
  
Jon grinned, "I drove slow."   
  
"Now, why didn't I think of that?"   
  
It was about five minutes until six. We stood by the oak tree that was by the pond. I sat cross legged with my back to the tree. Jon studied his claws, bored.   
  
Six o'clock came and went and no one appeared.   
  
Jon glanced at his watch. "If he doesn't show up soon, we're leaving."   
  
"Yay!" I whispered happily, making sure Sammy and Vanessa couldn't hear me.   
  
Jon chuckled to himself, quietly enough that Vanessa and Sammy couldn't hear. Abruptly he stopped and sniffed the air.   
  
"Let's get out of here."   
  
Vanessa frowned, "Why?" She glanced down at the ground. Here and there were random patches of dying plants. "Okay, let's."   
  
I got to my feet and began backing away slowly. There was a blinding electrical blue flash of light and then nothing. 


	5. Prisoner of Fate

Prisoner of Fate  
  
A man smoking a cigarette stepped leisurely out of the bushes like he was out on an evening stroll instead of just having knocked out four teenagers.   
  
He blew some smoke out into the air, contemplating. There had only suppose to be one teenager and here were four. He glanced at the girl nearest him. Her red curls fell covering half her face.   
  
"Hmm, like her parents," his voice was low with a slight rasp.  
  
He knew the rule. No blood members unless, of course, specified. He stubbed out the cigarette and tossed it on the ground.   
  
He pivoted a little. A boy lay behind him. He had a scowl on his face. His hands were held away from him. The man squinted. Out of the knuckles half in, half out were claws.   
  
"Take that one," He pointed to the boy.   
  
The three men who's face were all strangely bank bent down and picked up the body.   
  
Another man with white blonde hair stalked silently over to the first. "Well, Loran, what rule have you decided to break this time?"   
  
Loran lit another cigarette. "He is the one we are looking for. I am not breaking a rule. At least not, yet, Damien."   
  
Damien smirked. "Let's go. Catania is not to kept waiting."   
  
#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^#^# ^#   
  
I woke up. Every bone, every muscle, rebelling against the movement. After much struggle, I managed to sit up.   
  
My head pounded. I closed my eyes and propped my head in my hands. "You're awake," Beast commented.   
  
"Thanks you, Mr. States the Obvious." I mumbled into my hands. "What happened?"   
  
"You were found unconscious in the park."   
  
"Nice."   
  
Beast handed me a cup. "Drink. It will make you feel better."   
  
I obeyed. "That's horrible," I choked out in between coughing.   
  
"In the long run, it's worth it," Beast responded dryly. After my convulsions were over, I, indeed, felt better. The throbbing was gone and my muscles and bones only complained a little.   
  
I crawled out of the hospital bed and ambled leisurely down to my room. I pulled on a long sleeve, hooded black shirt and my camouflage pants. There was a knock on my door.   
  
Sammy and Vanessa walked in. "What's goin' on?" I asked, hoping I could get a straight answer out of them.   
  
"Jon is gone," Vanessa answered bluntly.   
  
I blinked and stopped trying to put on my sock. "What?"   
  
"It was another kidnaping. It was a setup, I think. It was suppose to be you." Vanessa studied her fingernails, not wanting look me in the eye.   
  
I blinked again. The words: Jon, is, and gone. Can not be used in that order and make sense to my brain. Hell, I couldn't remember a time that Jon hadn't been there! Taking a deep breath and squashing my feelings, I got to my feet. "Let's go outside."  
  
Vanessa frowned; Sammy looked shocked, but they didn't object. This is how I have survived everything. No mother, no father, missing friends, living in constant alert for someone, something was gonna get ya.   
  
Taking a walk at the Xavier Institute is not a relaxing thing to do especially on a nice day when everyone was outside. Practically everyone was outside. And just about all of them were using their powers in one way or another. We started trying to name what was happening and who was causing it. Small explosions of color were blasting into the sky. Vanessa pointed, "Lena"   
  
A small tree unraveled. Yes, unraveled. "Roberto," Sammy watched the tree reshape itself.   
  
BOOM! We ducked a blue wave of light and then chorused, "Jazz." We went over to one of the looming trees near the edge of the perimeter. Less people and less noise.   
  
Vanessa was wearing an oversized sweatshirt with 'I heart A.C. Slater.'   
  
"Ever wondering what the A.C. stands for?" I asked absently twisting a dandelion around my fingers.   
  
"Yes," We talked like teenagers for a while before we fell silent.   
  
No one has ever accused me of being down to Earth. I live in my own little world. It's not much different from Earth it's just like things got scrambled a bit. We had to worry about Magneto and Mystique, not this, I don't know what to call it.   
  
The strangest thing is my parents aren't there. Probably because I don't know what they're like. Sure I can remember them, but that's more what they look like than anything else.   
  
"You're umming again," Sammy remarks. I have a habit of starting to hum when I'm deep in thought.   
  
I shook my head. "Just wondering about, well, about you know."   
  
"No, not really." Vanessa responded dryly.   
  
"Mutants, why do they keep taking them? And who are they? Who's next? All the usual stuff that run's through your head each time this happens."   
  
"Probably you," Vanessa answered one question. "They wanted you this time; they'll probably try for you again."   
  
"Exactly," a new voice growled.   
  
The three of us whirled around and stared up at Logan. "Uh, hi?" I tried. Logan looked surlier than usual. Not that I blamed him. He was like me, sort of. They took his wife, his son, and his daughter. So now it was just him.   
  
"The Professor want to see ya." Logan told me, but I'd already figured that out.  
  
I got to my feet and followed him. I really, really hoped he'd forgotten about the water balloons. After a moment, I said softly, "I'm sorry about Jon."  
  
He grunted. In Logan-speak that translates into either, me too, or thanks or both.  
  
Logan knocked on the door. "Come in, Tianna and Logan!"   
  
I sat in a chair across from Professor X and waited for what I already knew was coming. Professor X spoke, but I only half listened, fidgeting impatiently. "Professor," I interrupted. "I understand. I'm not allowed out of the Institute without an adult. Can I go now?"   
  
I went back to my room and pulled out sheet of paper and added a name to the already lengthy list: Jonathan Howlett.   
  
Sammy walked into our shared room with Vanessa close behind her. "Not the list again!" Sammy groaned flopping onto her bed.   
  
"Yes," I replied, calmly. It was basically a list of mutants that had vanished.   
  
Sammy glared at the list. "I hat that thing."   
  
I shrugged, "You didn't know half of them."   
  
"True. But still . . . it always reminds me that someone I know might be next."   
  
"Or you," I put in cheerfully.   
  
She rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Ti. Thanks, a lot." 


	6. Stuck

KatLebeau: Poor Jon. It may not be so horrible as we think. But then again it could be much, much worse that we thought.   
  
Zero & Ghostie: Mario Lopez is The Hot Man on Saved by the Bell! This I must agree with!   
  
Summer2004: (hint: Foreshadowing) I hope you find out in forthcoming chapters too. lol. This story keeps producing all these unexpected twists. If I finish it I will be ecstatic!  
  
NightGoddess: *whacks her on the head with a rolled up paper* It's about time, you showed up! But I'll forgive you, cuz I don't know what I'd do without ya.   
  
Demonicamazon: Thanks! I'm glad you like my characters. Hmm, histories. Well, NightGoddess over there and I are going to start co-writing a fic on when Sammy got her powers (I hope) And if anybody's interested, I thought I'd try to do the story of Wagner family, cuz we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg.   
  
A/N: Jon's POV.   
  
Stuck  
  
My eyes pried themselves open and I wished I hadn't. The light felt like a solid object, slamming into my eyes. Instantly, I closed them again. "Jon, Jon, Jo-on? Can you hear me?"   
  
"Yes," I managed to get out.   
  
"Good, don't talk."   
  
Well, that was stupid, I thought. Who was I talking to, anyway? I squinted, but my vision was blurry. "Jolie?" I asked, surprised.   
  
"Your one and only," she poked me playfully in the ribs. It hurt. "Sorry," she apologized when I winced. "It's different for everyone."   
  
I muttered something under my breath that I shouldn't have. Jolie poked me again and threatened to wash my mouth out with soap while I was a temporary invalid. "Little sisters," I sighed teasingly as I rolled my eyes.   
  
She poked me yet again. "You're not suppose to talk."   
  
"Too bad," I retorted and sat up. "I don't feel so horrible as I first did. It could also be my regenerative properties."   
  
Jolie frowned, "But, Jon, we can't use our powers!"   
  
"Huh?" I asked.   
  
Jolie held up her hand and showed a metal band that encircled her wrist. "It's these things. Somehow, they keep us from using our powers."   
  
"Oh. Well, I can't exactly control my healing powers on myself. It just sort of just happens."   
  
"But still, may be we should test it."   
  
Had I been in better condition I would have jumped to my feet. "No, we are not going to cut me open."   
  
She laughed, "I was jokin' ! Geez, you're jumpy."   
  
"Sorry." I felt something in my pocket and pulled out a very crumpled bag. I pulled out one of Tianna's brownie. They were a little squashed, but nothing really can ruin Tianna's brownies.   
  
"Here," I handed Jolie part of the brownie I was eating. "It'll make you feel better."   
  
She looked at it. A small look of disgust flitted across her face. "What were these things?"   
  
When I told her, she forgot her initial disgust and bit into it. "How did you get her to cook? Blackmail her?"   
  
"No," I said rubbing my chin. "Though, that's not bad idea." So I told her the whole story. "I knew that note sounded to much like she was getting mob money." I massaged my knuckles.   
  
Silence reigned as I polished off the rest of my brownie.   
  
"Where are we?" I asked finally to break the silence.   
  
She shrugged, "They don't exactly hand out maps." I gazed around the room. The walls were metal, the floor—cement. The lighting was dim and hazy. There was a few chairs, two tables, and the mat I was lying on.   
  
"Well, right now, we're in the Mutant Penitentiary's main room. There's other rooms for sleeping in and then there's the feed room where they shove all our food in, the bathroom, and that's about it." She sighed and began playing with her hair.   
  
"Oh, well at least it's spacious."   
  
She shook her head, "It won't be when everyone else gets in. Then it's just crowded."   
  
"Where are all the other mutants?"   
  
"Outside. They let us out every two days. I stayed in to watch you."  
  
As much like I disliked being talked about like I was a cow prone to wandering off, I was still touched. Jolie is a nature girl, hates being cooped up, and nothing less than a volcanic eruption will keep her from going out "You didn't have to. I would have been fine. Besides I would have gotten to eat all of that brownie." I joked and was rewarded with a quick, small grin.   
  
I laid down on my stomach and closed my eyes. I had lied a little when I'd told Jolie, I didn't feel so terrible.   
  
Okay, I'd lied a lot.  
  
I felt like I'd gotten hit my a semi and the horn was stuck between my ears and someone kept beeping it.   
  
"When I get out of here, I am going to kill Vanessa and Sammy, and then demand that I get the rest of those damn brownies," I grumbled before I drifted off into sleep.  
  
But I swear I heard Jolie laughing.   
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
I opened my eyes and tried to remember where I was. It all came rushing back to me in an instant. I mumbled into my bed, "Dammit, double dammit, triple dammit and crud." My whole body ached and I felt twice as bad I had.   
  
I lifted my head and stared up at the ceiling. Someone I didn't know stood over at me. "Are you awake?"   
  
"Nah, I'm sleeping with my eyes open," I replied, sleepily, trying to sit up.   
  
Jolie pushed me gently back down. "Don't."   
  
"What–?" I started.   
  
Jolie sat on my chest. "Stay. Down." She stated slowly, articulating each word like I was stupid or didn't know how to speak English.   
  
"Jolie, get off me." I managed.   
  
"Not until you promise not to get up."   
  
"Fine," I muttered. "Now get off of me."   
  
  
  
A/N: Sorry, this took so long. Damn school is starting up and all that crap. Oh and the comp wouldn't let me display the Edit/Add chapter page thing. 


	7. Dreams

KatLebeau: *smiles back evilly* Hmmm. Jolie was briefly mentioned in the Prologue. Sammy came in to tell Professor X that she went *poof*.   
  
Summers2004: You're not allowed to die! Look, look, I updated!   
  
Dreams   
  
"NO! Please, don't!" Someone screamed. "Leave us alone!"   
  
  
  
My eyes shot open. I stared around my room. A strange foreboding hung in the air. And I couldn't get rid of the feeling that someone was watching me. I listened intent on a noise.   
  
Nothing.   
  
I laid back down then sat back up.   
  
Silent? Completely silent? Where was Sammy?   
  
I jumped out of bed and stared at her bed in horror.   
  
The blue Hawaiian print comforter was untouched except where it was turned down at the corner, showing off the multicolored candy striped sheet. Her black tank top and her red plaid shorts were neatly folded on the foot of the bed.   
  
Sammy was a neat freak if you haven't noticed by now.   
  
She wasn't here, had never been here. I glanced at the clock. Just after midnight. Sammy was a night owl. She could survive on three hours of sleep and then catch a quick nap before a Danger room session and still be perkier than me.   
  
"Okay, don't freak. Maybe, she fell asleep on the couch or somewhere finishing up homework. Or maybe . . ." I thought of every possible scenario to contradict what was going through my mind.   
  
I doubted that Sammy had been kidnaped. It couldn't have been another kidnaping, not so close together. It had always been at least a month. Jon had only been gone for twelve days. Once I was throughly sure she was fine I went back to bed.   
  
Then I realized why I had awoken. It was The Dream again. It kept showing up at odd times and didn't usually show up for another couple of weeks. I'm not quite sure what it was about. But it always left me a feeling of impending doom and left me gloomy and pessimistic for days after. I could only remember fragments and always the same the fragments.  
  
"Dammit." I muttered as I turned over in bed.   
  
But I must have been really tired or just needed to sleep because I must have fallen asleep again.   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A baby cried. A door creaked open, slamming itself against the wall. "No, no. Just leave us alone!" A woman screamed.   
  
"Give them to me!" Another feminine voice demanded.   
  
"Never!" the first woman cried.   
  
`````````````````````````````````  
  
I blinked. That dream had never been so vivid before. Well, I shouldn't say that. It was like listening to a tape of those sounds. No pictures accompanied them. Just those few haunting words and the sound of the door.   
  
The first woman, she sounded so familiar. The name was there, but I just couldn't remember.   
  
Rolling over to stare at the ceiling I noticed their was a lump in Sammy's bed. By squinting, I could see a few blonde strands of hair peeking out from under the cocoon of blankets. Sammy was back.   
  
I grabbed some clothes that probably didn't match and raced out of my room. It was still early on a Saturday which meant that few people would be up if any. To my surprise, Vanessa, the early morning hater, was up, watching t.v. "Hi."  
  
She grunted her greeting and I went to forge for some food. Instead of food, I pulled out some hot chocolate.   
  
I perched myself on a chair and stared at the t.v. Those few words from my dreams tumbled around my mind. "Um, Ti?" Vanessa asked, snapped her fingers in front of my face.  
  
I blinked and shook my head. "Sorry."   
  
"You're scaring me, Ti. You've been a little weird since Jon vanished."   
  
I wanted to say, 'Wouldn't you be too if your best friend disappeared?". Then I remember she had been hauled away, not even getting to say good bye to her friends.   
  
"Yeah, I know. It's just weird without him being here." I sighed and sat Indian style in the chair.   
  
Vanessa grinned, "I remember when you came with Professor Xavier to convince me to come to the Institute. And you had a mini fight right there in the kitchen."  
  
Jon and I have had our share of fights. Every things from gigantic explosive ones to small, bantering kind. Those were the most often.   
  
Vanessa stared up at the ceiling and sighed. "So, now that we have had our angsty conversation for the day what should we talk about now?"   
  
I sipped my hot chocolate thoughtfully. "Sammy vanished last night."   
  
"What?" Vanessa squawked.   
  
"No, I mean, she wasn't in bed at midnight."   
  
"So? She could have gone to the bathroom."   
  
I shook my head. "Uh-uh." I explained how everything had been neat and folded and not touched.   
  
Vanessa frowned, "That's weird."   
  
"Even if I couldn't see her, I wouldn't really be worried. Sometimes when she's asleep she'll accidently make her invisible."   
  
Vanessa laughed quietly. "Really?"   
  
"Yeah, it's kinda funny because she usually ends up like three feet away from her bed and then she wakes up. So she's like what? It's funny actually."   
  
"Yeah, so what? You levitate," Sammy responded testily.   
  
"Er . . ." Vanessa mused.   
  
"How long have you been standing there?"   
  
"Long enough to hear the two of you discuss my sleeping habits," she plopped down on the floor.   
  
Vanessa got straight to the point. "Where were you last night?"   
  
Sammy blinked and looked innocent. "In bed."   
  
"Liar." Vanessa and I chorused.   
  
Sammy frowned, sat back on her heels, and leaned in closer to us. In a conspiratorial, stage whisper she told us, "I can't tell you. Not yet any." She got to her feet. "I'm going to forge for some food. Want anything?"   
  
We both shook our heads. I turned to Vanessa, "What do you think?"  
  
Vanessa shrugged. "I don't know."   
  
By midmorning when the mansion was humming with life, I was bored out of my mind. Twelve days, not going anywhere.   
  
I felt like I was waiting for the men in white to come and take me away. I stuck my head in the door of Vanessa's room. "I'm leaving; Wanna come?"   
  
"What?" She asked, her head snapping up. I winked at her and hurried down the hall. I knew she'd follow me.  
  
She finally caught up with me while I was tearing through the backyard. "Tianna, Tianna. What? Are you crazy?"   
  
I grabbed hold of the fence and began climbing upwards. "I thought that you that already?"   
  
Vanessa looked like she wanted to strangle me. Sammy materialized by her. "What's going on?"   
  
"Tianna's escaping. I'm going with her." Vanessa gritted her teeth and began pulling herself after me. I balanced myself momentarily on the top of the fence, watching Vanessa climb slowly.   
  
Let's face the girl definitely needs to get some more arm muscle. Of course, I was a natural acrobat in either form, so I shouldn't talk. I jumped gracefully down to the ground and started a wild dash away from the mansion. I wanted to be as far away as possible before they found out I was missing.   
  
Vanessa dropped over the opposite side of the fence. You'd think that there'd be more security measure to keep us X-teens in or the enemy out. Not that most security networks will stop a suitably determined teenaged mutant from going where it wants, when it wants.   
  
Actually that goes for teenagers, period.   
  
Sammy stamped her foot. "Wait for me!" She cried and slid in between the rails, jumping after us.   
  
I knew that when I got back the three of us would be in one chaotic hell of trouble. 


	8. Agent Idiot

Ghostie: Hey, I'm happy just as long as you come back! I AM A FEEDBACK JUNKIE!!!!   
  
Summers2004: Good!   
  
KatLeBeau: No worries, mate! The dreams are *flinch* foreshadowing.   
  
NightGoddess: *clamps hand over mouth* YOU will be quiet.   
  
Mike N: Hi and welcome too Blades of Chaos otherwise known as the torture chamber.   
  
Agent Idiot   
  
Things would have been just peachy except for one thing. We were following a semi marked trail.   
  
Correction: We HAD been following a semi marked trail. Now we were following something like a path.   
  
In dummy terms: The foliage was trampled down, but no one had removed the rocks and you were still tripping over roots.   
  
Then there was the sound of someone tripping and cursing. The three of us exchanged glances. "Ummm, what was that?" Sammy whispered.   
  
Vanessa and I shrugged worriedly. Then a man stepped onto our way. The man was wearing, get this, a black trench coat, black turtleneck sweater, black pants, and black pants. It had to be close to seventy-five degrees!   
  
I wasn't uncomfortable even though I myself was dressed in a black tank top, jeans, and combat boots.   
  
But a turtleneck sweater AND a trench coat????!!!!   
  
Oh, yeah there's one thing that I forgot to mention. He also had a gun.   
  
And that gun was pointed directly at us. Now this wasn't some hillbilly farmer that had managed to get his hands on some nice clothes, oh no. He was more like a James Bond wannabe. His gun was a neat little pistol. I know nothing about guns. But I did know this dude knew how to use it.   
  
"What are you three doing here?" His voice was neat and clipped and perfectly unemotional.   
  
"Walking," Vanessa retorted. I shuddered her big mouth was gonna get her in trouble one day, but I did NOT want to be around when it did!   
  
He snorted and took a step closer, glaring at us. Then his eyes narrowed. "You're mutants!" His other, not occupied by the gun was patting his coat pocket. The Agent pulled out something that looked like walkie-talkie and a cell phone.   
  
"Damn!" Vanessa cursed and turned and bolted. He started after us, but ran straight into a tree.   
  
"Nice one," I told Vanessa.   
  
She smiled and panted, "Yeah, I thought so."   
  
We broke free of the woods and face with a small problem. In front of us, there was a ravine, in the ravine was a stream, pretty narrow, but law of nature dictates that the current will be wicked. And it was. To our left the bank sloped of directly down into the stream. That left us running along downstream with little or no cover.   
  
Fall, drown, or be shot.   
  
Nice choices. We turned right. The problem with this is that the path sloped upwardly gradually, killer on your leg muscles, and as it went up it got a little narrower. And the Agent dude was still following us.   
  
Then he remembered the gun. There was a bang. Sammy screamed and jumped knocking into Vanessa who slid into me.   
  
Remember we're on a ledge? Cold, murky darkness came in around me. It hit me in a few seconds. We'd fallen off the ledge and must have landed in the stream. My head broke the surface of the stream. "Sammy!" I screamed. "Vanessa!"   
  
"Ti!" Sammy screamed back. She was perched on the bank, safe.   
  
Easily, I paddled over to her. The river was much broader here and calmer. "Where's Vanessa?" I asked.   
  
"Over here!"   
  
She was on the other river bank. Only Vanessa. I sighed. "Hang on we'll be over." Sammy vanished and floated across the water. Seeing as I was already wet I just swam across the river.   
  
"Now what?" Sammy asked.   
  
Why does she always ask questions like that? You know the kind, that you're always hoping someone ELSE has the answer to, but no one ever does.   
  
Vanessa shrugged and looked at me expectantly. "Get out of here and away from that gun slinging maniac," was my input on the subject and that is what we, um, attempted to do.   
  
Logan had always told us repeatedly, to save our strength. Never run when you can walk. This unfortunately didn't apply to everyday life especially laps. So we strolled retracing our steps. Sorta.  
  
"If we keep walking that way, we should be able to climb up and then make a run for the path again."   
  
"Is that the best option?" Sammy asked.   
  
Vanessa responded, "I think it's our only option."   
  
Oh, yes that makes me feel so much better our one and only option came from me. This is just one on a long list of 'issues' I have. Issues being my word for them. In a moment of action I get all bossy and will jump all over anybody who questions what I say. High self-confidence. In everyday life, medium-low self-confidence.   
  
I say it's adrenaline. Professor X call it the pressure/stress factor. That's usually where I zone out of the conversation. The Prof's great; he just tends to be a little long-winded and technical for my liking.  
  
Vanessa froze. "I have a bad feeling about this," she declared.   
  
"Let's scratch the plan and just, well, um! RUN!" Sammy cried.   
  
Hey, this sounded good to me and obviously to Vanessa too, so we did it. Vanessa who has eyes like an eagle stopped us. "There's a guy over there." She pointed to our get away point.   
  
Sammy cursed under her breath. Sammy looks like a sweet, innocent teenager, but you'd be surprised at the color of her vocabulary.   
  
"I say we try and make a break for the woods and then find our way out from there," Vanessa suggested.   
  
First though we had to get past the guy with the gun. Goody. Do you think that we carefully formatted a plan and then raced for the woods. Well, if you did, you're wrong.   
  
Three girls just pelted out of the bush and ran for the forest. Not the smartest thing to do, but we didn't have very many options.   
  
One thing I did remember that I could was knock him off his feet. The ground swelled up underneath him and sent him flying.   
  
Vanessa dodged tree. "I think someone's following us!" She gasped out.   
  
"No, really?" Sarcasm dripped off my voice.   
  
"Shut up, Tianna."   
  
No problem, since by this time six guys had melted out of the foliage. Sammy whirled and kicked down a guy before he could even blink. I knocked a few guys down and Vanessa called up some plants that held them tight to the ground. Sammy was holding a guy up at gun point using his own gun. She reversed it and knocked him out with the butt of his own gun.   
  
Look, I may have made it sound easy but it really wasn't. You have to get the men to stay still before you can tie them up with plants. Vanessa solved this problem using the heel of her boot and gross amounts of pain. SO by the time that they were all cover up with plants, they were all in basically the same, rather embarrassing position and they were going to be stuck like that for a long time if we had things our way.   
  
Not that I thought for a minute that they would. Okay here's the line up of fighters. The whopping three of us.   
  
  
  
Name: Vanessa ? (I have never been graced with the knowledge of her last name)   
  
Power: Plant control/empathy & flight (Plants had feelings? Who knew? And flying where the hell did that come from?)   
  
Downside: Attracts bad luck like a magnet (Remind me never to take her to Vegas with me)   
  
  
  
Name: Samantha Angelina Dovine   
  
Power: Invisibility and mild super strength  
  
Downside: Absolute klutz (And at this moment her shoes)   
  
  
  
Name: Tianna Wagner   
  
Power: Elemental   
  
Downside: about one tenth control over my powers, oh and the forever unpronounceable last name.   
  
Doesn't exactly instill confidence, does it? But continuing on. We were carefully unloading their pockets and Vanessa having no shame was relieving them from their cash as well. Sammy was methodically destroying all cell phones or anything else that could be used to communicate to anyone.   
  
"Let's go. These guys had to come from somewhere!" Vanessa reminded us, emptying the last of the wallets.   
  
"Let's be quieter this time?" Sammy put in helpfully. Vanessa and I both exchanged evil glances and picked Sammy up by one of her arms.   
  
"This is not what I meant," she grumped as we hovered above the ground.   
  
"Hey if you'd keep your mouth shut then there wouldn't be any noise what so ever," Vanessa told her.   
  
"*I* have a big mouth?!" Sammy squawked.   
  
"Hey, I'm holding you up," Vanessa reminded her. What am I? I wondered silently. Scenery?   
  
We set down quietly; "Hey, look over there!" Sammy pointed. 


	9. Some Rescue

* Zero-0: Neither can I!!! Doesn't that just fill you with confidence? lol. Anyway, Thanks!! Oh and that thing you're waiting for, it'll be happening in like two-four chapters. *crosses fingers* I hope.  
  
*Summers2004: It probably is!!   
  
*KatLeBeau: *blushes* This so much fun. I'm glad that there are people enjoying it! *put another tally down on piece of paper* Another for J/T romance!  
  
A/N: Jon again!! And bonus points to those who can catch all the different movie references! Sorry about it taking so long. But I hope it was worth the wait. This is probably one fo the better chapters if I do say so myself. And it has this awesome little plot twist! *evil grin* But it's angsty in parts so just watch for it.   
  
"Some Rescue!"   
  
  
  
After about six hours of consciousness I decided that being sick, really wasn't as bad as being healthy. It was crowded and noisy and I had decided that it was a good thing that we couldn't use their powers because someone was likely to get hurt.   
  
By me.   
  
On purpose.   
  
A breeze whispered across my neck. It tickled! I swatted at the back of my neck. "Hey!" A muffled voice cried indignantly.   
  
"Oh, no!" I exclaimed. A pair of feet, legs, a body, neck, head–Sammy.   
  
"What not happy to me or something?" She teased, smiling at me.   
  
I rolled my eyes, "One good thing about this was I didn't have to put up with you. My hopes have been shattered. Wait, where you are Vanessa is, where Vanessa is Tianna is. So where are they?"   
  
Sammy shrugged and pushed herself off the floor, "Dunno, we got separated."   
  
"What are you doing here?" Jolie demanded. "How'd you find us?"   
  
"On complete a total accident," She answered.   
  
Jolie rolled her eyes. (Howlett family thing) "Right the three of you were just taking a walk and happened to find us?"   
  
Sammy looked thoughtful for a moment. "No, in between we were chased by some guys with guns."   
  
"You're being serious aren't you?" I asked.   
  
"Yeah! Do you think I'd try to kick bad guy butt in these shoes?" She pointed to her four inches heeled boots.  
  
Jolie giggled, and I sighed. To Sammy, shoes are sacred, I swear! Take the shoes off and be able to run. Heaven forbid it! Tis better to sprain an   
  
ankle on a misstep in stilettos than to leave the shoes behind.   
  
The door to the cell opened and a guard stepped in. Sammy hid . . .behind me like it was gonna help. As far as height goes, I'm pretty damn small, taller than my dad, but then again who isn't?  
  
She vaporized most of herself, if anyone had looked over my shoulder all they would have seen is a pair of blue eyes. And that wouldn't make them suspicious or anything. Oh, no.   
  
"That tickles," I complained softly. She made it a pointed to try even harder to annoy me.   
  
When she was solid again, I was gonna strangle her. The guard's walkie-talkie gave a crackle of static and then a voice sounded. "The two other girls have been sighted. They are in the stairwell, making a run for the roof. One has what appears to be a lethal basketball."   
  
"Basketball?" I mouthed silently then more incredulously I said out loud. "Basketball?" Okay Vanessa and Tianna are strange, but that's a little weird even for them.   
  
I leaned back, "Sammy, do you think that you can take that guy out?"   
  
"You mean like kill him?" her voice was muffled, slightly and faded in and out because she really had very little control over vocal cords or tongue.   
  
"No, I was think more like banging him over the head with a hard, heavy object," I responded.   
  
"Oh. No prob." She surged up and over my shoulder. I've never been too sure what happened next, because the next thing I knew was the guy was lying on the ground and Sammy was dusting off her hands.   
  
"Okay? Now what?"   
  
This was answered by something producing a hole in the ceiling. It was orange, round, and about the size of a basketball. The 'basketball' began ricocheting around the wall.   
  
Except the when a basketball bounces it doesn't leave scorch marks, and it doesn't glow either. It bounced once more before it landed one the floor and collapsed in a wisp of smoke.   
  
That's when two more things fell through the hole.   
  
"'Oh, it'll only go one floor,' you said. 'We won't go any farther,' you said. 'It'll be fine,' you said," Vanessa grumbled. "Yeah, freakin' right." Only she didn't say freaking.   
  
"Tianna!" Sammy squealed.   
  
"My ego, it came back!" Ti remarked sarcastically. "Whoa." I think by this time she had been able to adjust to lack of light. "Oh-kay. Jolie?"   
  
"Tianna!" Jolie jumped up and ran over to her friend, hugging her.   
  
Tianna managed, "Jo, you're choking me."   
  
I stifled a snort. "Hey, I heard that," Tianna warned me.   
  
"Oh, good. I know I'm still loved," I muttered, staring up at the ceiling.   
  
"Lethal basketball, Ti?"   
  
"Is that what they're calling it?" She asked, walking over to floor where it had finally ran out of fire. No pun intended.   
  
She closed her eyes and slowly the smoking began swirling back to her fingertips. A small ball of flame collected at her fingertips. "Well that's kinda pathetic," She said to herself, but held onto it.   
  
Vanessa folded her hands and breathed out, "Thank you."   
  
Tianna gave her friend a brain duster and then turned back to me and Jolie. "What's going–Dad?!"   
  
You know, looking for Tianna's parents never crossed my mind once. I should have; Tianna being one of my best friends and all, but that never crossed my mind not once.   
  
Now if I had seen Mr. Wagner, I would have instantly thought of Tianna.   
  
But I hadn't. Oh, well. She'd found him. So everything worked out in the end. Jolie   
  
explained everything.   
  
"So it's these things that keep you from using your powers?" Tianna tapped my metal band.   
  
"Yep pretty much," Jolie responded.   
  
"Hmm," Tianna glanced down at the little fireball. She picked it up. "Jon, hold very still."   
  
"What are you doing?" I asked, suddenly becoming very jumpy. "You're gonna burn me!"   
  
"If you don't stop moving, I will," She mumbled and dropped the ball. The metal began melting and curling back away from the high heat flame. Damn   
  
that thing was hot!   
  
But in the end it was worth it. The bracelet broke and I was able to peel it off. The bracelet had about six, three quarters of inch long spikes that jabbed into my skin. The minute I had pulled the metal spike out of my wrist, the cuts healed. I shook my wrist trying to get the feeling back.   
  
"Well, if that's back," I said aloud to myself and tried to extend my claws. It didn't work. "Well, that's not good."   
  
"So, let's get out of here. Sammy said walking over to the wall, making sure that she treaded on the guard.   
  
"You can't. The wall is about a foot and a half of metal-adamantium, actually."   
  
She blinked, "Oh. So now what?"   
  
"Tianna, if you even think of," Vanessa started.   
  
Ti rolled her eyes, "I won't, besides I don't have anything so pull the fire   
  
from, ya know."   
  
Vanessa held out her hand, "Don't try to explain, really."   
  
I silently agreed. It's no wonder Tianna has very little control over her powers; they're confusing! I'm glad I've got ones that have a mind of its own . . .or don't have a mind of their own.   
  
Never mind.   
  
We'll forget that I ever brought that up.   
  
Where was I? Oh, yeah.   
  
Sammy looked at the vent that she had come through. "I can take two   
  
people through with me if I tried really hard."   
  
Two people translated into Vanessa and me. Tianna can't stand having her molecules rearranged and Jolie pretty much rejects her molecules shifting   
  
even though her power IS shape shifting.   
  
Vanessa and I both made faces, but let Sammy invisiblitize us. I did not make that word up. It's a Ti-ism   
  
Being turned into vapor is not comfortable. It kinda itches, to tell the truth, and you feel all tingly. You can barely see, can breathe only enough to keep   
  
you alive, and you move, very, very fast. It's like a roller coaster . . . without the safety bar.   
  
And Sammy neglected to mention something important. Like, um, we were going to be sucked into a downward spiral, INTO A FAN!!! I think Vanessa screamed, but between my impaired hearing and her impaired vocal cords, it was kinda hard to hear.   
  
We whoosed down barely scraping passed the fan blades and down into a whirling network of tunnels. I definitely heard Sammy chanting, "Eenie, meanie, minnie, mo." under her breath.   
  
We flew down the chosen the path and with a jarring crash landed in a heap with me on the bottom.   
  
"Someone needs to watch their hands," Vanessa commented.   
  
"Yeah, I think someone just licked my ear," I said grumpily, managing tostand up. "There's a door. Maybe it lets out into the hall."   
  
"Kay," Sammy said. There was no doorknob. There was a red button, though. For all we know, it could be a self-destruct button for the whole building that would kill us all.   
  
Vanessa, though, just had to push it. NO, I'm not joking. She saw the button and she was hypnotized. But luckily all the button did was open the door.   
  
The three of us stepped inside. "Whoa," Sammy breathed. "What is that?"   
  
"They're mutants," I said, stating the obvious. "In hibernation or   
  
something."   
  
We walked down length of the room. It was like a gallery of asleep mutants, each was carefully labeled with name, codename, powers, height, weight, when they'd been put in etc. And everything was set up in alphabetical order. Most were empty. Some names were of those who were still at the institute. Other were of those who were being kept in the holding pen somewhere.   
  
I stopped running my fingers over an empty case plaque in the middle of the room. Cassandra Mastraini-Howlett. My mother. I read the information, slowly, sadly, drinking it up. Scribbled in at the bottom of it were the words "No longer can be obtained–deceased."   
  
Sammy gave my shoulder a gentle reassuring squeeze. I gave her a grateful smile and continued on.   
  
Vanessa had both her fists stuffed in her mouth, and she was slowly rocking back and forth, making small whimpering noises.   
  
"Um, Ness?" Sammy asked, managing to pry Vanessa's fists out of her mouth.   
  
Her breathing was shallow and quick. All the color was gone out of her face. She whimpered, "Oh no, oh no, oh no. N-n-n-no. O, please, no." Tears welled up in her eyes.   
  
I shook her gently which brought her back to reality. "Vanessa, what's the matter?"   
  
She raise one finger and pointed to the case behind me. "That, she, that woman in my mother."   
  
I whipped around looked at the name plate. "That's impossible," I declared, amazed.   
  
"Yeah," Vanessa gave a dry, humorless laugh. She was in hysterics by this time. "That's me the little miracle! Such joy! Such pride! And then she turned around and abandoned me!" She slammed her fist into the wall. "My mother, Rogue," She spat out. 


	10. In which there is mass confusion

-*Summers2004: Don't worry, I'll keep writing I'm having way too much fun to stop.  
  
-*Ghostie: I thought so. Yeah, I felt bad killing off Jon's mother, but I can't write so many characters. *bows* Thanks  
  
-*Alhandra: Welcome!   
  
-*Zero-0: I always need help! Just keep sending me your ideas. I love 'em.   
  
-*NightGoddess: I know. *hands her gold star* Congrats on them all!   
  
A/N: Short Chapter. I think it's crappy, but hey that's just me. I'm sorry for taking so long to update, got into some trouble with the teacher at my school. The notebook that I had everything in has been taken away from me. Err. BUT I decided to update the little I had.   
  
In a totally non-related to anything story. There is a great X-men message board site. Blades of Chaos is also been up there. If you would like a link, just email me.   
  
The Chapter of Confusion   
  
I blinked, what the hell are you suppose to say to something like that? Sammy looked at me hopelessly. I sighed.   
  
"Vanessa," I said.   
  
She turned to look at me. "What?"   
  
"Listen, just hear me out, okay? All these mutants in here they had a life, possibly a family, something that got them out of bed in the morning. You think their family and friends and weren't a upset about them vanishing? Look, at Tianna." I felt really rotten pulling Tianna into this especially when she wasn't even here to step on my foot or anything when things got too personal. "Both her parents got taken, she can barely remember them!"   
  
Vanessa stuck her chin out stubbornly. "They didn't abandon her, though. They didn't leave her behind of their own free will. She did."   
  
That was true. Crud. Vanessa seeing she had gotten her point across began walking toward the door. "Thanks, Jon, but it didn't work!"   
  
I sighed and glanced at Sammy. She shrugged. "I'm gonna go see if I can find the hallway." Sammy faded out and left.   
  
What happened to girl talk? All the feminine stuff that I didn't want to hear about, but they tell me anyway? Couldn't some of that come in handy right about now?   
  
I ran after Vanessa, hoping to keep her out of any more trouble. She was looking at an empty case, my mother.   
  
"I didn't know your mother died," she whispered.   
  
"Yeah," I said. "When I was ten. If I had any wish in the world, I'd want to bring her back. She's been gone for almost half my life, but I still miss her. If you had the chance to have grown up with your mother, would you take it?"   
  
Vanessa stared at the ground. "I don't know, but if I could turn back the clock to that day she left me and rewrite it. I think I would. But life isn't a book and you can't fix the errors in it."   
  
"Hey, Vanessa, ever wonder why it hurts so much?" A new, yet familiar voice asked. We both turned to see Tianna, striding towards us. "It hurts because you love 'em. And you know why you love 'em? Because they loved you first. And it probably hurt her as much as it hurt you to leave you. It wasn't a decent thing to do, and there was probably a better way to settle this, but in the long run, mostly it'll hurt you."   
  
Tianna turned away and began walking to the opposite end of the room. Vanessa needed to be alone, so I followed Tianna.   
  
"How long were you there?" I asked her.   
  
"Long enough to hear your speech," was her reply.   
  
I leaned against the wall, "How did you know what to say?"   
  
Tianna shrugged. "It's what someone told me when I hated everyone because I was left behind."   
  
I blinked. A lot of people had tried to console Tianna when her mother was taken. "You know who said that to me?"   
  
"Who?"   
  
"Your mom."   
  
I nodded, "How did you get out?"   
  
She replied, "Dad teleported." I nodded. "So, um, what are we gonna do while Vanessa decides? Sit here and stare at each other? No offense, but I'd rather do something else."   
  
I grinned, "I haven't seen in so long that I forgot what you looked like either."  
  
"Did Sammy find you guys?"   
  
Ti nodded, "Ya, but it's not doing much good. You have three tries to get the right passcode and if you mess up three times alarms go off. And it's not like we don't have enough trouble as is." She brushed an unruly curl out of her face, but sprang out from behind her ear almost instantly. Ti gave an exasperated sigh.   
  
"Guys?" Vanessa called quietly.   
  
"What?" We chorused.   
  
Vanessa shook her head, "I hate it when you do that. Anyway, I thought about it and decided I'll do it." She heaved a sigh.   
  
"And how come I have a feeling that in the process that you'll give her a big piece of you mind?" Tianna asked.   
  
"Because, I am."   
  
"I was afraid of that."   
  
Vanessa marched over to the case. "What the hell do you do?"   
  
I reached over and spun the dial to "wake" and cocked my head. "Hard, no?"   
  
She gave me a look that said shut up, shut up now.   
  
"Um, shouldn't we, like, wake 'em all up?" Ti asked.   
  
I shrugged and followed her as she began waking all the mutants. There were only about ten and I guessed maybe another ten upstairs, including me.   
  
Tianna flew over to the top of one of the cases. "What are doing?" I asked.   
  
"I wanna see how this thing works," she answered. "Damn, why'd I have to wear these pants?"   
  
"Well?" I asked after a few minutes.   
  
Her head peeked over the side and down at me. "Nothing. But I theorize that the fluid is nutrition and is prolly diluted with a highly effective depressant. But that's just a theory."   
  
I just shook my head as she slithered down and landed next to me. There was a slight whooshing sound and one of the cases opened. "Mom!" Tianna shouted joyfully and dashed to Ryann.   
  
You would never guess that Ryann Wagner was any older than twenty. She looked young and then she's got a kind of this charisma around her. She looked kinda surprised to see her daughter.   
  
How come I had a bad feeling about this?   
  
"This is way too easy," I muttered, glancing around.   
  
Vanessa dashed up to us. "Okay there's bad news and there's good news. Which do you want first?"   
  
"Good news," I said.   
  
"Well most of the mutants are awake," she nodded her head a few times. "The bad news they can't use their powers and Agents have found us."   
  
"Oh, that's nice." There was a beeping noise that interrupted the rest of my sarcastic comment.   
  
"Hey, that's the, the, the, the thingy!" Vanessa said snapping her fingers trying to think of the word.   
  
"Brilliant, Ness," Ti sighed. "Why did you bring that?"   
  
Vanessa shrugged, "It was on my night stand. I ain't following you around to who knows where without some link to the rest of the world." She took it out of her pocket and flicked it on.   
  
"What?"   
  
Ya gotta love Vanessa.   
  
"Vanessa? Oh, good!" It was Sammy.   
  
Tianna wrestled the communicators out of her friends grip. "Sammy, where are you?"   
  
"Outside."   
  
"Is everyone out?"   
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Okay, I'm going to do give you some very hard instructions. Are you ready?"   
  
"Uh-huh."   
  
"Good. Run! Go to the river where we fell in, we'll meet up with you there."   
  
I mumbled, "Yeah. If we can get out of here."   
  
Vanessa and Tianna both elbowed me in the stomach. "Ow." They both ignored me.   
  
One of cases opened. "Gambit got one helluva hangover."   
  
Vanessa's eye twitched. "Did he just speak in the third person?"   
  
"Yeah," Tianna and I answered.   
  
Vanessa sighed. "This is going to be a long day." 


	11. Sweep

*Rhodesy: New reader. I read, "A new Flame" it's great. Didn't get a chance to review.   
  
*Summers2004: My one question is: Where'd he get the alcohol?   
  
*Zero-0: Thanks. One more chapter.   
  
*Moon and starrs: Thank you. Mmm. yes, Jon.   
  
A/N: I'm alive! *dances around* I know this took forever to update and it's dinky, but there was so much stuff going on in my life. It was like hell trying to find time to type a word in this story. My life has FINALLY settled down for a bit. At least until Christmas. But I plan on doing a lot of writing in between times so I'll still be able to update. *grin*   
  
Mmmm, what else? Not much as of the moment.   
  
  
  
Sweep   
  
I couldn't help, but smile at Vanessa comment. "Yeah, time flies when you're running through the woods getting shot at," I remarked with a roll of my eyes.   
  
"Being cynical, that's my job," Jon teased.   
  
I rolled my eyes, "Can you be serious? For once?"   
  
"No." He paused for a minute, "Um, yeeah. What're we gonna do now?"   
  
"Breaking the window sounds like a good idea right now," Vanessa replied.   
  
"Dude, we're three stories up. Jumping, not a good idea," I reminded her. "And not all of us can fly."   
  
"I know," Vanessa mumbled. "Jon, break the window, please."   
  
"Why do I always have to break the window?" Jon grumbled but did it anyway.   
  
Vanessa took the rope she had stolen from a guard and tied it to one of the pipes that hung from the ceiling. "Powerless muties first," she announced, peering down. "There's still an eight foot drop, so you know, watch out."   
  
I was too short to reach the window. Jon easily lifted me up, but I took one look at the drop, let out a high pitched squeal, and wrapped my arms around the nearest stable thing–Jon's neck–like a scared four year old. "Uh-uh, uh-uh. No freakin' way! Not gonna do it! Nope, no way! Nuh-uh!"  
  
Jon sighed, "If you're not gonna go out the window, can I at least put you down?" Not that he waited for an answer or anything, he just dropped me.   
  
Clomp, clomp, clomp. Footsteps thundered down the hallway. We exchanged glances.   
  
Only a second before they opened the door and found us. "Hide!" Jon hissed.   
  
Like he needed us to tell us. We're strange, not stupid. Yeah, but, where?   
  
Vanessa vanished somewhere and Jon crouched down by the door. He'd be able to make a run for it if need be.   
  
My eyes darted nervously around the room. There was a catwalk, circling the upper parts of the room and a bar about six feet underneath that. I leapt and hung on, swung my body, so that one leg was hooked over the bar and both hands were clasped around the bar.   
  
We waited and as I was staring up at the catwalk, breathing shallowly. "You three check that room," A voice rag out.   
  
I stiffened as the door banged open. "Sir, you better come see this!" Someone yelled.   
  
'Sir' entered the room looked at the empty mutant cases and the rope and cursed. "Seal off all the exits; check to make sure that none of THEM haven't gotten left behind." Sir spat out THEM like it was a curse word.   
  
All four of them marched out of the room hurriedly. Vanessa melted out of her hiding place and Jon straightened up. "So what now?" The rope was gone. And Jon can't fly.   
  
And Vanessa and I may be strong, but admentium isn't light. Vanessa went to the window and hollered a few instructions to the mutants on the ground.   
  
"Let's get out of this room, first of all," I decided. I looked up at the catwalk, pivoting slowly, there had to be a door or something up there. I climbed back on the bar, and managed to pull myself so that I was kneeling on the bar, and stretched out slowly to grab the catwalk. Holding onto that I pulled myself onto the 'walk.   
  
"And you expect me to get up there, how?" Jon asked, eyeing the bar with a huge mound of distrust.   
  
I strolled around the catwalk, keeping in eye on the edges until I found what I was looking for. With a thunderous clatter, I unleashed the ladder. "Using that," I answered Jon.   
  
With some difficulty, we managed to force the door open and step inside and we were met by complete and total darkness. If I had put my hand in front of my face, I wouldn't have been able to see it at all.   
  
"Great idea, Tianna," Vanessa said sarcastically.   
  
"Shut up, Vanessa."   
  
A hand brush across my neck, making me jump and fall back into Jon. "Ow," he muttered. "Hey!"   
  
"What?" I asked.   
  
"My claws came back. I missed you, claws." He joked.   
  
"Yeah, well, that's dandy unless you happen to have a lighter stored on them, they aren't much use."   
  
Jon shouldered past me, "See that's where you're wrong." I heard the sound of him dragging his claws against the wall and a shower of sparks fell.   
  
"Do it again!" I ordered. Jon complied and I managed to catch a handful and nurse them into a flame.   
  
I held it up, to see out surroundings. Not that there was much to see. We were in a low ceilinged tunnel, with stone walls, and a stone floor. "Something about this isn't right," Jon muttered, surveying the area. "What do you think?"   
  
I shook my head. "It isn't right. We should be up, but right now it feels like we're down."   
  
I placed my hands on the stone and sent a thread of earth power downward. I was met with solid rock. I withdrew it and sent it snaking upward. It cleared the ground and hit the air. A frown creased my forehead, "We're underground, somehow. What do you think, Vanessa."   
  
She closed her eyes. "Uh-huh. We're below most of the root systems."   
  
We stared off into the waiting darkness. "So, who wants to go first?" Jon asked.   
  
"You two," Vanessa squeezed behind us. "Ti's got the light and Jon, if anything jumps out at us, it won't hurt you. Much."   
  
"Thanks," Jon said. "I feel used."   
  
We followed the tunnel, ( not like we had any other choice) until it came to an end. There was a ladder built into the wall. "Up we go?" I questioned.   
  
"You first," Jon said giving me a shoulder up. Since I could only use one hand this would be interesting.   
  
I ended up hugging the bar with my arm that had the fire in it, lifting my free hand to the next spoke and bringing my feet up behind me. It was slow business, but eventually we made it to the top. I pushed tried to turn the crank to the door, but it wouldn't budge. "Jon, steady me, please?"   
  
Running my fingers along the surface, I found out there was a keyhole. Well, we couldn't get out like that. I rubbed my hands together and raised the flames heat and intensity and place my hands on the door.   
  
The metal slowly began to melt until it was just big enough for Jon to fit through. I smiled pleased with myself and started to scrambled out because I became aware of the fact that there was absolutely no ground in front of me.   
  
We were, in fact, by the same ledge that Sammy, Vanessa, and I had fallen off of earlier that day.   
  
Talk about irony.   
  
"Uh, Houston, we have a problem," I mumbled.   
  
Vanessa and Jon peaked out of the hole. "No ground."   
  
A few muttered curses, some in French, most in English. "Well, this is perfect," Jon grumbled.   
  
At that moment the little ledge that was supporting most of my weight, cracked and piece of it gave me, tilting me forward. Jon lunged forward and managed to grab my hand.   
  
At first I was thankful until I realized he was resting most of his weight on the same ledge that I had been on moment ago.   
  
There was another crack. Earth was far and away my worse element. I could try and concentrate on convincing the rock to stay together for a few moments longer, but then I wouldn't be able to help Jon rescue me which would in all likelihood send both of us into the river.   
  
Adamentium and water don't mix.   
  
Or I could concentrate working with Jon to pull me up. But even more likely than before the ledge would break and send only Jon into the river.   
  
I could try and fly, but then the ledge might break and send Jon into the water. But that seemed like a bad idea. I felt a little frayed around the edges from all the power usage in the last ninety minutes.   
  
OR I could let go which I didn't like, but seemed the best option. I can stay underwater for a while so I doubt I would drown and if I had to I might be able to use the water or wind to save me at the last moment.   
  
"Tianna if you let go of my hand, I will hurt you," Jon warned. "Vanessa, climb down a few steps."   
  
:Crack:   
  
I winced at the sound and tried to harden the stone a little. I don't know if it worked on not, but it was worth a shot. Jon grabbed my other hand and helped me walk up the ledge. Once I was more or less safe on the ladder, I let out the breath I had been holding.   
  
"I know!" Vanessa cried, snapping her fingers. "We can com Sammy! You've got the Communicator link, don't you?"   
  
I checked my pocket and groaned. "No. It must've fallen out when I fell."   
  
"We're doomed," Vanessa intoned moodily.   
  
Jon chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, "If they made a tunnel to here, there must be a way out."  
  
We all sighed in unison, and Vanessa quavered out, "I could fly out of here and see if I can find the others."   
  
I frowned, "Vanessa, with your sense of direction-,"   
  
Jon snapped his fingers interrupting "Ti, the ledge!"   
  
"What about it?"   
  
"It's the way out!"   
  
There was a silence that was typically broken by Vanessa, "Okay, things aren't that BAD."   
  
"No! Tianna, just see if you scan it please?" Pause. "I'll hold you."   
  
With Jon anchoring my ankles in place, I reached over and touched the rock again and found the place where the rock had chipped off. Something blue shimmered deep inside. Experimentally, I stuck two of my fingers in the hole and watched in amazement as a pattern of rock, perfect for climbing, pushed itself out of the mountain.   
  
"Told you so," Jon quipped.   
  
Vanessa and I both glared at him. He grinned, "Ladies first."   
  
I stepped onto the ledge and climbed up steadily.   
  
After a few minutes finally, I got to the edge of the cliff. I pushed myself up on the ledge and pushed myself over–  
  
only to be stopped by a pair of legs. I groaned inwardly. Not another agent. I glanced up and discovered it was much, much worse than it agent.   
  
I gave a weak grin. "Hi, Logan."   
  
He grunted and pulled me up by the back of my shirt. "What the hell did you thinking you were doing?"   
  
"I thought I was going to take a nice relaxing walk through the woods. Unfortunately, that idea crashed and burned when we ran into a guy with a gun. Then we fell in the river, got swept downstream, found a building, got chased some more, found all the missing mutants, got chased some more, and then we wound up here. Then it gets fuzzy," I mumbled into the ground.   
  
Jon hoisted himself over the lip of the ravine and grinned. "Well, that was fun," he smirked.   
  
"You might wanna radio Sammy," I slurred into the ground. Frankly, I was too wiped out to lift my head and articulate.   
  
Logan growled out, "Blondie radioed me. Thank God that one of you has some sense."   
  
As if on cue, Sammy leading the croup of mutants charged up the hill. "You guys, okay?" she squealed.   
  
"I was until you showed up and decided to break my eardrums," Vanessa grumbled.   
  
And several hours later, I was still totally wiped, but it wasn't worth it trying to catch any Z's. Trying to sit down was useless, every time I did I just found there was something else I had to do.   
  
So when I had more or less walked into a wall and fell. It's no wonder I just lay in the middle of the hallway.   
  
Jon looked down at me. "What are you doing?"  
  
"I've tried hiding. They find me. So maybe if I just lay somewhere very obvious, they won't notice me."   
  
Jon smiled, "It's not working."   
  
"Darn it." I raised my arms and Jon pulled me up. "I'm going to make some coffee."   
  
Jon trotted after me, "So how much trouble are you in?"   
  
I shrugged. "I think seeing that I practically passed out while I was meeting with Summers and Xavier. I might get off the hook a little easier."   
  
Jon snickered and broke off abruptly as we passed Vanessa's room. The door was open just a crack and we could hear two voices.   
  
"They've been in there for a LONG time," Jon told me as we passed the door.   
  
I nodded. I could tell Jon was aching to eavesdrop and so was I, but we both behaved. Not that we needed to since what happened next could probably heard through out the whole X-mansion.   
  
"Mr. Speaks in the Third Person is my what?!" Vanessa exploded.   
  
Jon scratched the back of his neck, "So what have you been doing lately?"   
  
The door flew open and Vanessa stalked out. "I hate my life. I think I'm going to go pass out or die. If it's the last one give me a nice eulogy.."   
  
Remember when I said, life has a sick sense of humor. Well it just decided to reinstall itself back in my life. Vanessa didn't pass out. I did. 


	12. Shopping

Zero: Yes, I know what else you're waiting for and here it is.   
  
Alhandra: Yes, I know it took it forever and you should update too. How 'bout, I update, you update?  
  
A/N: I TOLD you I'd update more regularly. Short n Silly really  
  
Embarrassment  
  
I snuggled deeper into my blankets. My head felt like it had a herd of white horses had taken up residence in it.   
  
Light streamed in through the window. "Ahhhhhh," I groaned.   
  
"Look, who's finally awake," Sammy teased, bouncing on my bed and more or less strangling me with a hug.   
  
"Oh, I feel like a steam roller ran me over," I griped, rolling my neck around and yawning.   
  
"You would! You have been out for, like, the last sixteen hours!" She gushed.   
  
I stuck my tongue out and stared at me ceiling. "Ja, so what happened?"   
  
"Mr. McCoy thinks it may be a mixture of stress, over stretching with your powers, and just plain over physical exertion," she smiled.   
  
"Ja, so? What happened after I passed out? What did I miss?"   
  
"Oh! That, well, you missed a really great fight between Vanessa and Gambit who is her father. Like that wasn't obvious or anything. They hate each other since they're so much a like. And that's pretty much it, except you missed the really cute scene of you being carried by Jon to the med bay."   
  
"Better not have done a fireman's carry," I grumbled.   
  
She laughed. "No. He was a gentleman."   
  
I smirked, "Doubt it. Where is everybody? Why are things so quiet around here?"   
  
"All the captured mutants and some of the others that were left to hold down the fort all have a meeting with Xavier. Vanessa is sulking in her room. Jolie is trying to clean her room, and did I mention Vanessa is sulking? And Jon has mysteriously vanished."   
  
"I'm starving."   
  
Sammy bounced on my bed, making me a little seasick. "I was just gonna go see if Jolie and 'Ness wanted lunch."   
  
"Okay, leave and let me dress," I ordered sorting through my dresser and pulling out a pair of cargo khakis and a black tee shirt.   
  
Sammy left and I pulled the clothes on stalked outside. "Hey," I greeted Vanessa and Jolie with a smile.   
  
"You feeling better?" Jolie asked   
  
"Somewhat," I replied, digging through my music box to find a ponytail.   
  
"Ehhhh. . . . ." I moaned, "nothing. I need some more." Instead I settled on a bandanna.   
  
Sammy's blue eyes got this disturbing, maniacal gleam. "You know we need?"   
  
"A life?" Jolie asked.   
  
"To kill my father?" Vanessa asked.   
  
"No. We need the proven way to make females feel better!" Sammy grinned. "Let's go shopping!"   
  
Vanessa grinned. I groaned. Jolie grabbed my arm. "Let's go!"   
  
Sammy grabbed her purse. Vanessa went in search of her money. And Jolie borrowed some of Jon's.   
  
"How are we gonna get there?" I asked. "No adults, no Jon, no one to bribe?"   
  
Vanessa smiled. "I do have a driver's license and the garage is full of cars."   
  
Jolie returned and jangled some keys. "Jon didn't take his car."   
  
Swoon!   
  
Vanessa's smile got even bigger. "Yeah, baby!"   
  
I rolled my eyes. "Mein Gott!"   
  
But I was dragged down the hall and out to the garage. Vanessa climbed into the driver's seat. "Maaaaannnnn!"   
  
"What?" Sammy asked.   
  
"It's standard. Damn you Jon! What about you, Sammy?" Sammy shook her head. "Jolie?"   
  
"What choo talkin' 'bout?" I can't even drive automatic!"   
  
I pushed Vanessa into the passenger's seat. "Let me drive!"   
  
I turned the key in the ignition and looked at Sammy and Jolie, "You gonna get in or what?"   
  
They scrambled in and I backed out of the driveway. "Who taught you to drive standard?" Vanessa asked.   
  
"Jon," I replied.   
  
Vanessa put her head in between her legs and screamed, "WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!"   
  
I laughed. "No way. I don't drive like a maniac. Not usually."   
  
"Hey, before we go shopping, I want some food," I told my friends.   
  
"Yeah, what happened to lunch?" Jolie complained.   
  
"Fine, fine, fine," Sammy said, annoyed. "But no fast food. I'm on a diet."   
  
The other three of us in the car moaned loudly. "Not again!"   
  
"Fine. how about the Cosmic Café?" I asked. "Jolie, can have her vegetarian. Me and Vanessa can have what ever we want and you can fine something low fat."   
  
We went in and ate. Trust me . . .It was boring. So was the mall. Very . . .  
  
But I'll tell you what happened after we came home.  
  
We took the long way home. Simply because I love driving. Anyway, I took a few of the turns a little sharply, so all the bags toppled over in the back.   
  
When we pulled into the garage, Vanessa went to sort out whose stuff was whose.   
  
"All right, who's is this?" Vanessa demanded, holding up a brand-name black bra. Funny, how brand-name usually meant, revealing.   
  
Sammy and I all began frantically pointing for her to turn around. Jolie wildly tried to smother her giggles.   
  
"What?" Vanessa asked. She glanced over her shoulder, and she went red right to the hair line: Jon and a somewhat new guy (his name is Dean) stood looking at Vanessa.   
  
She dropped the bra, so it landed on Jolie who squealed loudly and flung it away at her brother who caught with a disgusted look on his face.   
  
"Hey, this is definitely NOT mine!" He said, throwing it back to his sister.   
  
"I don't want it!" Jolie yelled, throwing it back to Jon.   
  
"Does it look like I do?" Jon called. "Here, Dean, maybe it'll fit you." He said handing it to him.   
  
Dean had come to the institute awhile ago, but had returned to a normal life after he had more or less mastered controlling his powers. But he had come back, I guess.   
  
Dean took the bra and put it on. Jolie and I burst into laughter and had to lean on each other to support ourselves.   
  
"So how do I look?" Dean asked, pivoting around like a model.   
  
"Can't . . . . breath . . . ." Jolie managed in between giggles, collapsing onto the ground.   
  
Dean grinned and took the bra off. A large sheepdog padded into the garage, put both of his paws on Dean's stomach, took the bra in its mouth and left the garage.   
  
"Why did that dog just take the bra?" Vanessa asked.   
  
Dean shrugged, "Fuzzball's strange like that."   
  
"What's he gonna do with it?" Jolie gasped out.   
  
"I wouldn't know," Jon remarked. "We're not the one's with animal empathy."   
  
"Oh, yeah!" Jolie chirped, closing her eyes. "Oh, dear." She put her hand to her mouth and started laughing again.   
  
"What?" Dean asked.   
  
Jolie laughed harder. "You'll . . . . see."   
  
There was a shout and then the sound of foot steps. "What is dis?" A familiar voice asked.   
  
"I'd say, it's a bra, sir," I told Gambit, somehow managing to keep a straight face. Jolie howled with laughter on the ground which sent me off again.   
  
Gambit dropped the bra with disgust and stalked out. Vanessa, Jon, and Dean started laughing too. Sammy was blushing furiously since it was her bra after all.   
  
"Welcome back, Dean. How do you feel?" I asked.   
  
"It's good to be here, Tianna. So what have you been up to?"   
  
Vanessa, Sammy, Jolie, Jon, and I exchanged glances and laughed even harder. "It's a long story." We chorused. 


	13. TROUBLE

Alhandra: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Here's the web site it's called X-factor. Just copy n paste: http://homosuperior.proboards20.com/index.cgi  
  
A/N: The POV in this chapter changes about eighty times. So if it's confusing, I apologize. I also apologize for how long this took, but my computer caught like twenty-eight viruses at the same time.   
  
Oh, and if you're looking for something excellent to read I suggest NightGoddess's stuff. A Darkened Day is one of the best stories you can find on ff.net   
  
Warning: I suck with accents. Especially, Gambit's  
  
T-R-O-U-B-L-E  
  
"I got kidnaped," Jon said.   
  
"I got kidnaped first!" Jolie shot back.   
  
"And we got a new mutant," I added, nudging Vanessa into Dean.   
  
Vanessa blushed furiously. Most likely since she had been waving intimate apparel around when she first saw him. "Hi."   
  
He smiled, "Hello."   
  
Vanessa elbowed me in my side. "I'm gonna kill you," she mumbled. I smirked and pulled out my three bags from our shopping adventure.   
  
"First, we got the call to go pick up Vanessa," I explained, "And then while we were trying to convince her to come Jolie got kidnaped."   
  
"And we brought Vanessa back and Tianna got her secret admirer," Jon added.   
  
"Which was all a ruse to get her to the park so they could kidnap her," Sammy chipped in. "She was suppose to turn up by herself, but we all went, even Jon."   
  
"I was bribed by brownies. And you owe me a new batch by the way."   
  
"Jonathan Jacob Horatio Howlett," I snarled.   
  
"You didn't just say my middle name," Jon murmured, pretending to be dazed.   
  
"Your middle name's Horatio?" Vanessa asked. "And Jacob? Jon Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt!"  
  
Jon glared at me. "You truly hate me or something don't you? Yes. And if it wouldn't be speaking ill of the dead, I'd say something about it. I'm just glad my mother had enough presence of mind after labor not to let my father name me. Knowing him, my name would be Bub and Jolie would be Darlin'."  
  
Jolie laughed. "Sadly enough that's true."   
  
"Anyway to make a really long story short. Jon got kidnaped that night. We freaked. I was put under really tight surveillance then escaped along with Sammy and Vanessa. We were chased by some guys with guns, found all the Lost Mutants, ran from some more guys with guns, nearly got killed, managed to get back here in one piece more or less, and then I don't know what because I passed out."   
  
"Figures," Dean teased me.   
  
"Shut up."   
  
Dean was tall maybe 6'3, making him easily the tallest X-teen. He had dark brown hair, light brown skin, and despite being a hockey player had all his own teeth.   
  
Fuzzball was Dean's sheepdog and his name was accurate as can be. He was a hyper walking ball of fuzz. The dog went straight over to Jolie and nudged her against the back wall, licking her happily.   
  
Jolie laughed and tried to dissuade the dog without using her powers which in the end proved futile.   
  
"Fuzzball, stop it," Dean ordered. The large dog left Jolie to romp over to Dean and attacked him instead.  
  
"NO!" Dean thundered. Fuzzball sulked as well as a walking carpet could.   
  
Jolie giggled. "He's hyper! Being cooped up in the blackbird for the whole trip. So we have a gigantic backyard, why don't we let him run?"   
  
Jon searched for an old tennis ball from one of many Jolie's stray animals that she'd brought home. "Found it!"   
  
In the backyard, Dean and Jon played fetched with Fuzzball and Jolie who had morphed into a golden retriever. Vanessa was tending to a sapling that was slowly dying. And Sammy was driving the dogs nuts by suddenly appearing out of thin air to catch the ball and throw it in the opposite direction.   
  
I sat down and watched my friends happily. Things were good.   
  
"Hey, you feeling better?" Jon asked me.   
  
"Would I be out of bed if I wasn't?"  
  
Jon was silent a moment. "Yes and you know it." Then he sat down next to me.   
  
"I hate it went you're right," I told him, rubbing my hands together, trying to get some feeling back into them. "It's getting cold. Think we'll have snow before Thanksgiving?"   
  
"EH, I don't know. Wouldn't be the first time."   
  
Jon took my hands. "I think Bobby's hands are warmer when he's in ice form." He teased me.   
  
Now I could actually feel my hands. "You'd think that having metal in your hands would make them colder than mine."   
  
"And having part time fur would make you warm."   
  
"The fur parts what messes me—," I was cut off by an abrupt stab of pain around my rib cage area. I gasped and closed my eyes.   
  
"Ti?" Jon asked, catching me as I slumped. "What's the matter?"   
  
"I don't know." The pain spread slowly.   
  
"Someone go get Hank!" Jon yelled. "Can you walk?"   
  
I could barely convince my lips to move. "No-OOOOOOOOO!" the word turned into a shriek of pain as the pain spiked sharply into the climax.   
  
Then I blacked out.   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
(Jon POV)   
  
I looked at Tianna. All color had drained out of her face and her breath was shallow and slow.   
  
"This is creepy," Jolie murmured. "She looks like she's going to die."   
  
"Well, cheerful, to day aren't we?" I asked dryly.   
  
"Cynical, much?" Jolie asked, putting her hands on her hips furiously then she softened. "You know, something's wrong with her."   
  
Dazed, I asked, "What?"   
  
"Stupid, regenerative property," Jolie rolled her eyes. "Jon, Ti's sick or something. She passed out yesterday and now she's out again. That's not normal. Beast was wrong, it wasn't just exhaustion or over extending her powers. She's sick."  
  
"Beast's never wrong," I muttered more to reassure myself Tianna was fine, then to defend Beast's medical skills.  
  
"First stage: denial," Jolie muttered, staring at me. "She'll be okay, cuz it's ya know Tianna."   
  
"Jolie, do you think you could have tried and killed that sentence a little more?" I asked her.   
  
"Do you want me to try?" Jolie asked, tilting her head back to look at me.   
  
"Please don't."   
  
Sammy linked arms with me. "Jon, watching her isn't gonna help." She told me kindly.   
  
"I know," I responded mechanically. Seeing that I had no intention of moving, Sammy dragged me out of the infirmary. Damn her super strength.   
  
"Sheesh, Jon," she muttered and she dragged me down the hallway. "It's not like you stabbed her."   
  
"You didn't see the look on her face," I muttered. I don't know if she heard me or not.   
  
Sammy rolled her eyes, and muttered something that sounded peculiarly a lot like, men!   
  
She stopped in front of my room. "Lay down or something. You look pale."   
  
She left me there, and I shook my head. Her advice sounded good. SO I followed it.   
  
An hour or so later, some one was knocking on my door. "Jon, wake up!" Jolie yelled.   
  
I grunted and pulled a pillow over my head, trying to block out the sound. Damn my hyper senses.   
  
The sound stopped and I relaxed ready to drift back to sleep. But something was poking my back.   
  
I twisted around enough to see what was poking me.   
  
"Jolie," I started. "How did you get in here?"   
  
Jolie grinned. "Shape shifter, remember? I turned into a rat and compressed my rib cage and crawled under the door."   
  
Now there was an obvious answer. "What do you want?"   
  
"Dinner."   
  
"I'm not hungry." My head hurt and felt like I was back in the Mutant Pen.   
  
"Jon are you all right?" Jolie asked, frowning.   
  
"Yeah," I sighed. "Now go away."   
  
Several silent minutes passed. I flipped onto my back and propped myself back up on an elbow. "Jolie why are you really here?"   
  
"I'm scared." She whispered. Her eyes welled with tears. And I felt my heart sink to my stomach. I cradled her gently as she cried.   
  
She lay against my chest silently, but a tear every now would still roll down her cheek.   
  
I brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "Jo, I'm sorry," I apologized, wishing I could do something more than just apologize.   
  
She swallowed and one hand flexed. "What happened?" I asked.   
  
"Tianna," Jolie mumbled. "That's what happened with mom too."   
  
My heart skipped a beat as Jolie mentioned it. Everyone knows our mother died. Some know when and where. But only one person knows what happened exactly when she was died was Jolie.   
  
She was in the room when our mother started going into an intense seizure. And Jolie was still in the room when she drew her last breath.   
  
Now if that won't traumatize an eight year old nothing will. She wouldn't talk about with anybody, but she had nightmare after nightmare about it. And there wasn't much any of us could do.   
  
Jolie drew a shuddering breath. "Exactly."   
  
I hugged her and felt a little nauseous at the thought of Jolie going through that pain again.   
  
Maybe in hour later, I playfully slapped Jolie on the back. "You. Bed. Now."   
  
"Mm not sleepy," Jolie whined. A gigantic yawn practically splitting her jaw open.   
  
"Sure. You're not," I humored her, guiding her towards my door. "Sleep."  
  
  
  
~Vanessa's POV~ [Well this is new]   
  
It was late. I stepped outside. It was freezing cold outside, but I stood there, shivering in nothing but my flannel pants, my cami, my thick woolen robe, and fuzzy slippers.   
  
I sat down and the wind whipped my hair into my face. The door opened and closed. I wondered who it was. I glanced at the figure out of the corner of my eye.   
  
Oh, Lord. Shoot me, someone!   
  
Gambit, my supposed father, stood on the step behind me. "Ya mind if Gambit sit down?"   
  
"No," I grumped, scooting over toward the edge of the step, making room for him.   
  
I looked at my green slippers and the monogram that proclaimed: Sexy. The wind dies down and my nose caught a new scent. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and turned to Gambit.   
  
Without thinking, I yanked the cigarette out of his mouth, stubbed it out of the step beside me, and threw into a rose bush. Storm would kill if she found out who did it.   
  
Gambit looked at me, astonished. "Chéri, why'd ya do dat?"   
  
"Didn't anyone tell you smoking's bad for you?" Vanessa, dammit! My name is Vanessa!   
  
Gambit shook his head and took out ANOTHER cigarette and lit up again. Once, I likewise, pulled the cancer stick out his mouth and stubbed it out.   
  
"You light up again; I pull it out. And Vanessa suggests dat Gambit get dose cigarettes outta da bush or Storm'll be doing a blood hunt." I warned him, mimicking his Cajun accent.   
  
We glared at each other for a few minutes before I started to get up. Gambit looked away first.   
  
I won! I thought gleefully. A mental raspberry sounding off in my mind. Yay!   
  
Okay, that was immature.   
  
Gambit leaned back a little, expressing all the grace of a cat. Why the heck didn't I inherit that from him. Instead, I got his hair color and a female version of his face, except for the nose which is my mom's.   
  
Geez, while in this vein why couldn't I get his powers? I wanna make stuff explode! But instead, I can fly and have control of plants. How do those two even go together in anyway?   
  
Whatever.   
  
"Ya know, I never knew I had a daughter."   
  
I blinked. Did he just say 'I'? Yes, wait. How the hell can't you know if you have a kid? It's not like we get brought by the stork or anything. And you know baby's do leave their mark on a woman when she's about to have one. And have you SEEN my mother? I'm sure that the fact that she was pregnant would show up, practically immediately.  
  
He went on, "'Til Rogue got captured. Den she tol' Gambit when she came to."   
  
And we're back to third person. "That would have been awkward." was all I said.   
  
Ever said something and want to shoot yourself right after you say it? This was one of those times.   
  
I stayed silent, until my mouth betrayed me. "Did you know about Jeremy."   
  
He nodded and began to look extremely sad and guilty. Hey, I didn't blame him.   
  
See, Jeremy's my older brother. He was pretty normal. Auburn hair, green eyes that seemed to change . . .somehow when the light caught them. Looking at Gambit, I realized that he probably had gotten the black effect.   
  
And you thought my family couldn't be any more dysfunctional, didn't you?   
  
Gambit and talked for a little longer. I can't say that he's my favorite person in the world, but at least we were starting to get along.   
  
Key word: starting.   
  
I yawned. "I'm gonna go to bed."   
  
"Night chèri," Gambit called out.   
  
I smiled at him and as I passed him I dipped my hand into his pocket and pulled out his lighter. No fire, no smoking. . .no lung cancer.   
  
I was halfway up the stairs when I noticed a light on in the kitchen. And people wonder why the bills are so high around here?   
  
Jon was sitting in a rather awkward position. He had a quart of ice cream in front of him. He had one claw out, and his spoon was in his mouth, but his hand was holding the end.   
  
The radio was on and Dean was bouncing up and down on a stool. "Go, go, go!"   
  
Jon rolled his eyes. "Mrel."   
  
I looked at the quart of ice cream and pulled out a spoon of my own. "Why are you sitting like that?"   
  
"Better reception," Dean managed to hiss while he listened intently to the commentator. "Ah! What are you doing?"   
  
"What are we listening to?" I asked.   
  
"Hockey game," Jon removed the spoon. "I'm eating!"   
  
"Ah, ah, ah." I knocked his spoon away using mine. Get a new spoon. I don't want to know how long that's been in your mouth."   
  
Jon grinned and tossed the spoon away. "All right."   
  
Dean pounded his head against the counter. "NO!"   
  
"He's as bad as Sammy," I whispered.   
  
"No one is as bad as Sammy," Jon replied. "Thank God." 


End file.
